Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Die dreiwertige Logik der Sprache" verfügbar.

This paper defends three theses: that presentism is either trivial or untenable; that the debate between tensed and tenseless theories of time is not about the status of presentism; and that there is no temporal analogue of the modal thesis of actualism.

Much recent work on natural information has focused on probabilistic theories, which construe natural information as a matter of probabilistic relations between events or states. This paper assesses three variants of probabilistic theories (due to Millikan, Shea, and Scarantino and Piccinini). I distinguish between probabilistic theories as (1) attempts to reveal why probabilistic relations are important for human and non-human animals and as (2) explications of the information concept(s) employed in the sciences. I argue that the strength of probabilistic theories (...) lies in the first project. Probability-raising can enable organisms to draw specific inferences they otherwise could not entertain and I show how exactly they help to explain the behaviour of organisms. In addition, probability-raising warrants inferences by providing incremental inductive support. (shrink)

In the following article, we propose an analytical framework for the analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Standards based on the paradigmatic nexus of voice and entitlement. We follow the theory of decentration and present the concept of Transnational Norm-Building Networks (TNNs), which — as we argue — comprise a new nexus of voice and entitlement beyond the nation—state level. Furthermore, we apply the analytical framework to the ISO 26000 initiative and the Global Compact. We conclude the article with remarks (...) on the legitimacy and the effectiveness of norms generated by TNNs. Through this, we aim to contribute a new theoretical foundation to the analysis of CSR standards, which enables us to undertake a more differentiated description of TNN structures which have hitherto been ignored in academic literature. Secondly, we will contribute to the practical debate on ISO 26000 and the Global Compact by proposing new perspectives on the conditions of their legitimacy and effectiveness based on the voice-entitlement nexus. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Modale Syllogismen, mögliche Welten, Essentialismus" verfügbar.

This paper assesses Sarkar's ([2003]) deflationary account of genetic information. On Sarkar's account, genes carry information about proteins because protein synthesis exemplifies what Sarkar calls a ‘formal information system’. Furthermore, genes are informationally privileged over non-genetic factors of development because only genes enter into arbitrary relations to their products (in virtue of the alleged arbitrariness of the genetic code). I argue that the deflationary theory does not capture four essential features of the ordinary concept of genetic information: intentionality, exclusiveness, asymmetry, (...) and causal relevance. It is therefore further removed from what is customarily meant by genetic information than Sarkar admits. Moreover, I argue that it is questionable whether the account succeeds in demonstrating that information is theoretically useful in molecular genetics. Introduction Sarkar's Information System The Pre-theoretic Features of Genetic Information 3.1 Intentionality 3.2 Exclusiveness 3.3 Asymmetry 3.4 Causal relevance Theoretical Usefulness Conclusion CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Universes-Consciousness-Experience-Understanding/dp/1874440050/ ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8.

Insoweit das Humesche Induktionsproblem die Frage der Rationalität des induktiven Vorgehens aufwirft, ist es in positiver Weise lösbar. Die Lösung basiert auf der Einsicht, daß es eine fundamentale Form der Induktion gibt, ohne welche Beobachtungen und Experimente überhaupt sinnlos würden, und ein rationales Verfahren zur Bestimmung einer induktiven Voraussetzung existiert, das eine bestimmte Fassung dieser Induktion validiert.

This paper discusses some philosophical and historical connections between, and within, nineteenth century evolutionism and microscopical research. The principal actors are mainly Darwin, Schleiden, Whewell and the “London Doctors,” Arthur Henfrey and Edwin Lankester. I demonstrate that the apparent alliances—particularly Darwin/Schleiden (through evolutionism) and Schleiden/Whewell (through Kantian philosophy of science)—obscure the deep methodological differences between evolutionist and microscopical biology that lingered on until the mid-twentieth century. Through an understanding of the little known significance of Schleiden’s programme of microscopical research and (...) by comparing certain features of his methodology to the activities of the “London Doctors,” we can identify the origin of this state of affairs. In addition, the outcome provides an insight into a critique of Buchdahl’s view on Schleiden’s philosophical conception. (shrink)

“Anchoring” is a tactic used to manipulate negotiation outcomes. It exploits the fact that people base their estimates of unknown quantities on initial values. If they are given these initial values, their estimations are influened by them. We will address whether there is a rational justification for people to be manipulated by anchoring. We will also look at how to recognize in a negotiation situation whether the anchor effect is being used against you, how to use the anchor effect to (...) your benefit, or at least how to defuse it if it is being used against you. (shrink)

Das literarische Werk Blaise Pascals (1623-1662) zählt zu den großen Klassikern der französischen Literatur. Es umfaßt neben den Lettres provinciales und den Pensées bedeutende kleinere Schriften zur Religion und Philosophie, die in dieser Ausgabe vollständig und zum Teil erstmalig in deutscher Übersetzung vorgelegt werden. Dazu gehören so wichtige Texte wie die Methodenschrift "Betrachtungen über die Geometrie im allgemeinen - Vom geometrischen Geist und Von der Kunst zu überzeugen", die wissenschaftstheoretischen Überlegungen der "Vorrede zu einer Abhandlung über die Leere" oder das (...) packende, die Dialektik der Pensées vorwegnehmende "Gespräch mit Herrn de Sacy über Epiktet und Montaigne", das hier in der Übersetzung der neu entdeckten Originalversion vorliegt. Zu wenig beachtet worden sind bislang die religiösen Schriften, so z.B. das "Gebet zu Gott um den rechten Gebrauch der Krankheiten" oder die umfangreichen, nicht abgeschlossenen "Schriften über die Gnade", die Pascals Ringen um die Problematik von Freiheit und Gnade dokumentieren. Beigegeben ist die Lebensbeschreibung durch seine Schwester Gilberte Périer, eine erstrangige historische Quelle, und im Anhang die "Abhandlung über die Leidenschaften der Liebe" - nicht von Pascal, aber ein Dokument früher Rezeption und gleichzeitig erstaunlicher Fehlurteile mancher Pascal-Forscher bis heute. In den Anmerkungen des Übersetzers und des Herausgebers werden Literatur- und Bibelzitate nachgewiesen. Sie lassen die beträchtliche Quellenverwertung Pascals deutlich werden. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Why Maturana?Hans Ulrich GumbrechtWhy would a German scholar specializing in pedagogical thought travel thousands of miles to Santiago de Chile for an interview with a aging scientist who, it seems, has created for himself a solid reputation in the field of "biology of vision" without being hailed by his peers as a path-breaking innovator? In the German intellectual context, the answer to this question could be as laconic (...) as it would be superfluous: it consists in a deictic reference to the name and, implicitly, to the work of Niklas Luhmann. American readers, in contrast, may need some introductory explanation in order to understand the epistemological triangle between contemporary pedagogical thought, Maturana's biology, and Luhmann's philosophy—and, above all, in order to assess and even to appreciate its intellectual potential.Niklas Luhmann is certainly difficult to read, at least for starters, and to those who met him during his lifetime he invariably appeared to be a dead-serious person. But today, more than five years after Luhmann's death, we begin to discover traces of a sometimes uncanny irony—one may want to call it a "practical irony"—in his writing. One of the discursive gestures that characterized Luhmann's texts were references to academic authors who nobody had ever heard of (let alone read), presented with the same seriousness and with the same attitude of intellectual reverence that we normally reserve for the classics: for example, to the logician Gotthart Guenter, the philosopher Fritz Heider, the biologist Humberto Maturana, or the mathematician George Spencer Brown. There is no doubt that, in each case, a specific concept or a specific thought developed by one of these authors had turned out to be truly important within Luhmann's own work, and yet the "effects of authority" that his very serious quotes produced were nothing short of hilarious. For Luhmann's readers, with that self-flagellating attitude in which we academics so like to indulge, quite regularly attributed the experience that they had never heard of those seeming "authorities" to their own lack of intellectual cosmopolitanism. This is why, until the present day, some departments of sociology or philosophy in Germany have Spencer Brown or Guenter specialists on their payrolls, and this also explains why some of those authors have had moments of intense reception [End Page 22] in the world of the humanities and social sciences at German universities. Among them, Humberto Maturana, together with his co-author the late Francisco Varela, seem to be the exception confirming the rule that none of those Luhmann references had the intellectual power to survive Luhmann himself.Now why should one trust Luhmann's trust in Maturana? The debate about the importance of Luhmann's thought (he labeled it a "theory of social systems") in the larger context of contemporary Western philosophy has barely begun to become serious, and we are certainly many years away from a definitive consensual evaluation. But there are two—very different—features about Luhmann's work that make him fascinating at first glance. One lies in the simple fact that, probably, no other thinker since Hegel has managed to develop a restrained set of basic concepts and premises into a systematically coherent philosophical edifice of similar proportions. In this sense, entering the dimension of Luhmann's thought offers the patient reader a possibility to view many familiar positions and questions from sometimes radically different innovative angles. Less obvious, however, and more intriguing is Luhmann's intellectual bet to develop his systemic thought under strict avoidance of notions such as "subject," "subjecthood," or "agency." It was this very bet (about whose existential and political motivations he only left some rather vague remarks) that explains Luhmann's fascination for much theoretical thinking emerging from biological research, above all for Humberto Maturana's work. For from a biological perspective, subjecthood and agency are highly marginal attributes in the realm of living organisms. I believe that this (almost hidden) component in Luhmann's thinking can explain the particularly strong affinity of contemporary pedagogical thought in Germany with his work. Of course, such an affinity will not necessarily lead to a pedagogical theory that, in orthodox reliance on Luhmann, will... (shrink)

FREE download my new book, Philosophy is fiction,speculation, and opinions presented by reasoning and argumentation The tools employed might appear appropriate, the reasoning sound and argumentation valid, but the subject-matter, well one wonders what that has to do with philosophy, if anything at all? Viewing some of the topics one really wonders of the notion of philosophy is not stretched too far? So much that is passed off as philosophy itself or some kind of so-called interdisciplinary issues really appear as (...) irrelevant. Topics from the grievance studies especially fall under this. It seems as if individuals have personal issues, obsessions and psychological, social and cultural problems that they attempt to interpret, perceive and treat as if they are philosophical and/or philosophically related. (shrink)

Following Mr. Bixby and some other 19th century scientist-philosophers such as Claude Bernard, relevant scientific actions should, as a matter of primary importance, be explained with reference to the competence and not to the intentions of those involved. The background is a reliabilist virtue approach - a widespread tendency in 19th century epistemology and philosophy of science. Bixby's approach includes a critique of some constructivist arguments and establishes a mutually supportive connection to conceptions of scientific progress.

In his treatise on sophisms, the medieval logician and philosopher J. Buridan expounded a theory on what we have come to call semantic paradoxes. His theory has not yet been fully understood. The present paper aims at showing that Barwise's and Etchemendy's considerations on paradoxes (founded upon Aczel's non-well-founded sets) provide the framework for an improved understanding. Barwise's and Etchemendy's account is contrasted with Kripke's. Finally, a recent analysis of Buridan's position by Epstein is criticized.

In diesem Buch liefert Hans-Ulrich Wöhler einen repräsentativen geschichtlichen Überblick zum dialektischen Denken in der mittelalterlichen Philosophie. Untersucht werden ausgewählte Texte von Autoren unterschiedlicher sprachlicher, religiöser und philosophischer Provenienz aus dem Zeitraum zwischen dem 6. und dem 17. Jahrhundert. Die den Autor dabei leitende Frage lautet: Inwiefern dachten diese Denker in ihrer Philosophie dialektisch? Im Zentrum des Bandes steht somit die Beschreibung und Rekonstruktion von konkreten Äußerungs- und Anwendungsformen und vor allem von Inhalten eines dialektischen Denkens, unabhängig von ihrer (...) Selbstkennzeichnung durch deren Urheber. Entscheidend für die Beantwortung der Leitfrage ist es, ob und in welcher Weise in den untersuchten Texten ein Verständnis für die Kompatibilität, die Relativität, die Vermittelbarkeit oder auch die Einheit von Gegensätzen artikuliert wird. Der gewählte zeitliche Rahmen integriert in die Darstellung nicht nur einige klassische Vertreter der Philosophie im lateinischen, islamischen und jüdischen Mittelalter, sondern er bezieht zugleich die Perioden der Rezeption und Aneignung des antiken Erbes am Anfang und des kritischen Rekurses darauf am Ende der Epoche ein. (shrink)

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, only when lower or basic needs are satisfied will an individual be able to concentrate on higher needs. The motivation for the doing of original and creative philosophizing, theorizing in sciences and original work in disciplines or socio-cultural practices are some of the highest 'needs', values and attitudes. What are the values, attitudes and beliefs that groups of individuals subscribe to and employ to constitute their selves and realities? These things(that individuals experience as it (...) is their nature, their selves, their motivations, values and attitudes) are determined by genotypes, phenotypes, personality-types and other factors. (shrink)